Now that it is finally over after today, how would you change the next presidential election process?
I would:
Standardize the process and equipment nationwide
Put the election process under the control of a non-partisan group to actually define the process and implement it.
Establish early voting (again standardize across the country)
I would establish a requirement for a photo ID and in the 4 years until the next presidential election, I would set up a free, state based ID card, as issued by everyone’s local DMV.
Move it to a Saturday. Why the hell do we still have it on Tuesday anyway?
No intermediary organizations touching voter registrations or ballots. (WA state has GOP affiliated vans picking up ballots, VA had the issue with someone throwing out the other sides registration forms, OR had someone actually filling in blanks on peoples ballots)
The voting process would be similar to the old standardized tests - they give you a paper ballot, with a #2 pencil, you fill in the circles and the scanner scans it. Thus, even if there is a problem electronically, there is still a paper trail.
That’s about all I got right now, any other ideas? Anything wrong with my ideas?
Saturday is a holy day for some religious groups, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to have it on a Saturday. I’d be good with a Friday or Monday and make it a national holiday so that everyone has plenty of time to vote.
A national holiday would mean that the service sector wouldn’t have as much time to vote - same as holding elections on a Saturday. People would also use the three day weekend to go on short holidays rather than vote.
No campaigning* for anyone.** Candidates post all of their policies on their websites and people read them and then decide who to vote for.
If people do not have access to a computer then they can call a phone number to request a paper copy of the policies.
*Campainging includes tv and radio ads, phone calls, crap in the mail, and anything I’ve forgotten to mention.
**Anyone incudes everyone. Superpacs, friends of candidates, Joe blowjob billionaires ect.
I would extend the election over at least a two-week period, to minimize the risk of major derailment by a weather emergency or some other breakdown. To limit costs, I’d be willing to not have the polls open for every day of the period – four or five days scattered through the period on different weekdays (to avoid religious/scheduling issues) during the duration would be sufficient if well-publicized (preferably according to a fixed pattern, something like “the Monday before the last full weekend in October, the last full weekend in October, and the existing Tuesday after the first Monday in November”) would probably suffice.
I would have a no-excuse-required mail-in absentee ballot option in all cases, to blunt the effectiveness of the “squeeze out unwanted voters by providing inadequate facilities” trick. (Extending the election over several days also helps there, but IMO is not sufficient in and of itself.)
The most critical reform IMO is the use of hardcopy ballots as the primary medium in all cases. Electronics (open-source and independently accessible for audit only) could be used to facilitate counting, but the hardcopies must be retained for hand counting, the results of which would supercede the electronic count in case of dispute.
It’s more linked to the point I made at the start - the tourist industry would take the opportunity to make their staff work extra shifts, and it would limit the voting opportunity for them.
Also, if I may don my tinfoil hat for a moment, what’s to stop a politically active travel agency providing cut-price holidays that weekend specifically tailored at key demographics? Besides basic logistics and reality, that is
I’d like to see some kind of mobile voting facility, with voting expanded to at least a full week. The current use of churches and schools makes for all kinds of scheduling issues, but mobile facilities, decked out with signage and equipment, could provide voting places that could be re-purposed the rest of the year. They could be set up in shopping center parking lots, with temporary paneling serving as a waiting line corridor to provide shelter from bad weather. It’s a rough idea, but seems like it might be worth more thought.
Chefguy I agree with overturning Citizen’s United. We have to get the $$ out of the process.
Drunky Smurf I don’t know that not allowing campaigning at all is realistic, though certainly desirable. I can agree with getting rid of mailers, robocalls and tv ads. But the actual process of campaigning by giving speeches in different areas, that is important. In lieu of the lack of print, phone and TV, I would allow each contender to broadcast one speech a week on public tv.
Steve MB good comments! Your early voting solution is a good one, and I completely agree with the absentee voting issue. Definitely agreed on a paper trail.
I just had a recurrent thought - the debates must be a longer process, which requires more than soundbites. I would propose 3 debates, each scheduled for the candidates for an entire day. It is open to all candidates - R, D, Green, etc. The entire thing could be televised on CNBC, but the edited version would be televised for an hour in the evening. Why so long? Fact checking. No more debates without fact checking. My actual plan is a longer version of this, and if you vote for me, I’ll tell you what it is.
I’d make it over two days–a Friday and a Saturday–and make the Friday a national holiday.
All electronic voting would have paper receipts. One visible through a window in the machine (similar to what we already have), and one that prints out for the voter to take with them, just so we have a hard copy of it as well.
Every state should have vote-by-mail and early voting available. Dates and hours should be standardized.
Every state should allow voter registration to take place all the way up to on site on Election Day. In the computer age, there’s no reason why we should have that long of a deadline. Just bring a utility bill or something to prove where you live, and have at it. Some states already do this.
Open all debates to all third parties who are on enough ballots to potentially win. Have at least twice as many debates.
My pipe dream is proportional representation, but I can’t see how it will ever happen.
Making Election Day a holiday isn’t going to help the people who have difficulty getting to the polls as it is. Most of us Real Americans™ don’t work jobs where we automatically get holidays off.
Here’s how I’d reform the process;
-Voting begins in all states two weeks before Election Day, with polling stations required to be available and open at least 8 hours a day, extending to 12 hours a day the weekend before Election Day.
-No-excuse absentee voting in all fifty states.
-Sufficient polling stations must exist to meet population density - it should be a guarantee that no person should ever have to stand in line for more than one hour to vote.
-The registration card you get in the mail when you send in your registration form is your “voter ID” - no other documentation required.
-Absolutely no partisan “poll watchers”.
-Electronic voting machines that produce a printed, scannable ballot. The printed ballot is what is counted.
-Universal voter registration. When you apply for a driver’s license/ID card, fill out a change of address at the Post Office, or file your state taxes, there should be a checkbox on the same form allowing you to update your registration.
-Expand the “individual mandate” concept to voting. An extra tax of, say, $50 is imposed on your income taxes every election year. If you voted, you get a $50 credit.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday are holy days for a lot of people, so I’d move election day to Monday and make it a national holiday. I’d also standardize the process nationally, rather than have the mix of levers, paper ballots, and electronic voting machines we have now. Oh and abolish the electoral college and make the candidates work for votes over the entire country.
Make the polling stations open for 24 hours, 9 am Thursday to 9am Friday. The Friday to be a national holiday.
Minimise absentee voting: absentee votes should only be available for those who absolutely cannot vote in person, typically military and diplomatic personnel. Companies must make arrangements and pay for transport so that their employees can vote should the employee so wish.
I really don’t get the “national holiday” thing. If you’re expecting everything to close down like it’s Christmas day, that’s just not going to happen, and the number of industries where people automatically get “national holidays” off is dwindling every year. The only people who are guaranteed a day off by law are government employees - who you kinda need to have on the job on Election Day.
That obviously accomplishes nothing whatsoever, since the holiday takes place after the election is over.
A second piece of intrusive bureaucracy designed to (spottily) counteract the damage from the first piece of intrusive bureaucracy. Sounds about as efficient as a Rube Goldberg contraption (literally – transporting a person at considerable expense to perform a function that could be done by transporting a piece of paper for 45 cents really is the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a Rube Goldberg cartoon).
